Pennie Davis: Mum murdered in New Forest 'because former lover's son wanted her silenced over indecent assault claims'

Pennie Davis was found murdered in the New Forest (Image: PA / Daily Mirror)

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A mother was stabbed to death in the New Forest by a man recruited by a former lover's son to "silence" her and stop her accusing him of indecent assault, a court has heard.

Pennie Davis, 47, was found dead by her husband after she had gone to the field in Beaulieu, Hampshire, to tend to her horses.

Justin Robertson, 36, of no fixed address, who denies murder and conspiracy to murder, was traced by police after he dropped a set of car keys at the murder scene, Winchester Crown Court was told.

Benjamin Carr, 22, of Southampton, and Samantha Maclean, 28, of Hythe, are also charged with conspiracy to murder, which they deny.

Richard Smith QC, prosecuting, said: "Penelope Davis went to tend her horses in a field at a farm near Beaulieu on the edge of the New Forest.

"Whilst there and alone in a small paddock within the horse field, she was attacked and repeatedly stabbed by the defendant, Justin Robertson.

Victim: Pennie Davis was found with stab wounds in a field near Beaulieu, Hampshire (Image: PA)

"Penelope's body was found later that same afternoon lying in the field by her husband, Peter Davis, who had left work and come to give her a hand with the horses.

"They had only been married for a matter of months."

Mr Smith continued: "The defendant, Justin Robertson, had agreed to kill Penelope Davis for money. He had agreed to kill her for the defendant Ben Carr. It was he, Ben Carr, who had the plan, Robertson and Carr carried out that plan to kill Penelope Davis with the help of their fellow defendant Samantha Maclean."

Mr Smith said Carr had wanted Mrs Davis "silenced" because he believed she would make an allegation to police that he had indecently assaulted someone, a complaint she had previously made.

He said: "Why would Ben Carr want Penelope Davis killed? The answer to that question, which will remain at the heart of this trial, probably lies in the fact that Ben Carr believed that Mrs Davis was going to go to the police, as she had done before, and allege that he had previously indecently assaulted (someone).

"It was for that reason, principally it seems, that Ben Carr wanted Penelope Davis silenced, so he recruited others to help him."

Investigation: Forensic officers work at the scene at Leygreen Farm near Beaulieu in the New Forest (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)

Mr Smith said Mrs Davis knew Carr because she had been in a relationship with his father Timothy from about 2006 to 2012.

He said Ben Carr had a "lasting hate and anger" towards Mrs Davis after she made a complaint to police about the allegations of sexual assault against him when he was 14.

Mr Smith said police took no further action on the complaint and added that Carr "strenuously and consistently" denied the allegations.

He said: "The accusations left Ben Carr with a lasting sense of animosity, hatred, towards Pennie Davis. It didn't, say the Crown, wear off."

Mr Smith said Mrs Davis repeated the allegations against Carr in August last year after she found out that Timothy Carr was to marry his new partner, Alison Macintyre.

He said Mrs Davis sent Facebook messages to Ms Macintyre saying one of the alleged victims of Carr would be making a statement to police.

Mrs Davis wrote in one message: "Good luck, you will need it," and in another: "I can't forgive him, all the shit he gave me, I f****** hate him and all his family."

Trial: Winchester Crown Court (Image: Barry Batchelor/PA)

Mr Smith said: "It was not just spoiling the new family that was starting with the imminent marriage, it was much more than that, she was trying to do something specifically to harm him, to throw his life in utter turmoil with the allegations that he says were falsely made against him.

"The truth of those allegations matter not a jot. When you are simply accused of something like that it touches, in the most difficult way, all parts of your life.

"Ben Carr was going potentially to be labelled. People do not look beyond the allegation - it affects your relationships, it affects your own thoughts, it affects job opportunities. The list is endless and hugely important. It goes on and on.

"Ben Carr, having said from the outset so very clearly and passionately they were not true, being falsely accused of something would have instilled in him an even greater anger and bitterness, you may think.

"So Ben Carr came to the conclusion that killing Pennie Davis was the only means to bring those potential allegations to an end."

The prosecutor said police connected Robertson to the murder scene as he dropped the keys to Maclean's car in the field which were later found by officers searching the area.

Mr Smith said Robertson had a close friendship with Maclean and she would often drive him around.

He added that Robertson and Carr admitted knowing each other as they had a connection through drugs.

The prosecutor said Carr had promised to pay Robertson £1,500 for the killing.

He said: "A cheap price indeed."

Mr Smith said Robertson told acquaintances that Carr had given his reason for the killing that Mrs Davis had abused him as a child.

He said Robertson's reasons for agreeing to carry out the killing were "money and a misguided sense of right and wrong".

He added that Robertson and Maclean deny any part in the murder while Carr claims that he recruited Robertson only to scare Mrs Davis, not kill her.